Mariel Hemingway

The actress who won early acclaim in her teen debut in "Lipstick" and earned an Academy Award nomination for "Manhattan," is now the subject of a new documentary, "Running From Crazy," about her famous family, its tragedies, and her acquisition late in life of the joy of childhood.

By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan

Credit: Carlo Allegri/Getty Images

Mariel Hemingway (left, in her baptism portrait) grew up in the small mountain town of Ketchum, Idaho, with her older sisters Muffet and Margaux, and her parents, Byra and Jack, the eldest son of Ernest Hemingway. The couple fought constantly.

"My house wasn't sane," Mariel told correspondent Mo Rocca. "I didn't feel like I was crazy, but I felt like I lived in crazy. You know, in the land of crazy."

It was also a household where no one talked about depression or mental illness: "Oh God, no. My older sister, Muffet, suffered from mental illness, you know, still suffering today. She's beautiful and quite lovely. But it was a long and hard journey, and she never got help. She never saw a psychiatrist or a psychologist or got therapy or anything, because we didn't do that. Good WASPs didn't do that, you didn't talk about that."

Credit: Courtesy Mariel Hemingway

"I knew my grandfather was an extremely famous writer," Mariel Hemingway told Mo Rocca. "But my father (Jack Hemingway, left) didn't talk about him like one would talk about their father. I really believe it was because he committed suicide."

The Hemingways, Mariel said, were like the Kennedys, also touched by horrible tragedies: "We were sort of the other American family that had this horrible curse."

In addition to Ernest, six other members of the Hemingway family died by suicide, including Ernest's own father; Mariel's great-grandfather on her grandmother's side; her great-uncle Lester; her great-aunt Ursula; her uncle; and her sister, Margaux, who died in 1996.

Credit: Courtesy Mariel Hemingway

Margaux, Mariel and Muffet Hemingway in an undated photo.

"I was not a wild child," Mariel said. "I think because I watched my sisters be wild children -- they were, like, the crazy girls. Margaux was different from Muffet; she drank a lot, she partied a lot. It just seemed reckless to me and undisciplined. And I played the role of, like, 'I'm gonna be disciplined. I'm gonna do everything my parents tell me and then I might get a little of attention and love from that.'"

Credit: Courtesy Mariel Hemingway

Margaux Hemingway with Mariel Hemingway in the 1976 thriller, "Lipstick."

Mariel says that Margaux invited her kid sister - who had no acting experience - to play her kid sister, thinking it would help bolster Margaux in what was the model's first big movie.

While Margaux's performance was savaged, Mariel stole the show, even being nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture.

"I got very good notices after the film, which was kind of difficult for my relationship with Margaux," she told Rocca. "She felt resentment towards me for coming in and sort of taking the limelight, which I didn't intentionally do."

Credit: Paramount Pictures

Mariel and Margaux Hemingway in an undated photo.

Credit: Courtesy Mariel Hemingway

Mariel Hemingway played a 15-year-old who becomes pregnant, and rejects her boyfriend's pressures to get an abortion, in the 1976 TV movie, "I Want to Keep My Baby!"

Credit: CBS

Mariel Hemingway said being in "Manhattan" (1979), in which she played the teenage girlfriend of Woody Allen's middle-aged writer, was "like getting a break from that whole life I was leading. Even though I loved Idaho, it was a break from the crazy kind of dark and unhappy family."

Hemingway said the role - a teenage girl sophisticated beyond her years - was sophisticated beyond her years. "I was so unclear about what I was playing," she told Rocca. "I would ask my mother, 'Look at these lines. He mentions scuba dive equipment. What in the world does he mean?' I mean, I'd never had a boyfriend before. It was the last thing that I knew about, you know? I was really the most unsophisticated person, which was the irony of that situation."

Credit: United Artists

Mariel Hemingway and Woody Allen in "Manhattan" (1979).

Hemingway received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her performance.

Credit: United Artists

Robert Towne's "Personal Best" (1982), about female track athletes, starred Mariel Hemingway as a young woman who becomes romantically entangled with both her coach (Scott Glenn) and a fellow athlete (Patrice Donnelly).

"Bob Fosse didn't want me for the movie," Hemingway said. "He was, like, 'You're not right. You're all-American. You're this, you're that.' And I said, 'No, you have to understand something. I really understand.' 'Cause I'd played the victim my whole life, and I played the martyr at home. I sort of understood not really living the life you wanted to live, but sort of being guided to a life that somebody thought you should live."

Hemingway told Mo Rocca that she is often mistaken for other actresses. "I get Meryl Streep not very often, but I take it whenever I can get it. I get Brooke Shields often; I think that's the eyebrow connection. I get Michelle Pfeiffer; that, I always love. I get Heidi Klum, the model -- I love that because she's way younger than me and looking fabulous at all times. And I get Christie Brinkley. I get very good people. I'm, like, 'Yes! Life is good.'"

Credit: Libra Pictures

Eighteen years after "Manhattan," Mariel Hemingway appeared in another Woody Allen comedy, "Deconstructing Harry" (1997), as the teacher of Allen's son.

Credit: Fine Line Features

David Carradine and Mariel Hemingway in the 1999 drama, "Kiss of a Stranger." The two also co-starred in "American Reel" and "The Golden Boys."

Though Hemingway took time off from films to raise two daughters, she made numerous TV appearances, and starred in the short-lived series, "Civil Wars."

Credit: Michel Boutefeu/Getty Images

Actress Mariel Hemingway walks the runway at the Heart Truth Red Dress Collection, during the Olympus Fashion Week at Bryant Park, February 4, 2005 in New York City.

Credit: Carlo Allegri/Getty Images

Actress Mariel Hemingway speaks at the Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability forum held at the Ritz Carlton Hotel on April 26, 2005 in Hollywood, Calif.

Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Actress Mariel Hemingway, in a publicity photo from the documentary, "Running From Crazy," directed by Barbara Kopple, which explores the life of Mariel and the Hemingway family, which has lost seven of its members to suicide.

"I was a little nervous" about doing the film, Hemingway told Mo Rocca, fearing it could be "a horrible reality show, like watching a train wreck. Oh my God, I don't want that to be the case.

"But when I really thought about it, I thought if my tiny celebrity enables somebody to tell their story, then I've done a good thing. Because I honestly believe - especially after telling the story - that this story is not unique to me. This story is everybody's story. We all have challenges in our families. We all do."

Credit: OWN

Langley Fox Hemingway and her mother, actress Mariel Hemingway, pose during the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, January 20, 2013 in Park City, Utah.

Mo Rocca pointed out that both of Mariel's daughters, Langley and Dree, chose to go by the name Hemingway rather than their father's.

"Yes, they do," said Mariel. "Because Dree said, 'I'm not stupid, Mom!' I gotta love her for that!"

Credit: Larry Busacca/Getty Images

Actress Mariel Hemingway, daughter Langley Fox Hemingway, and director Barbara Kopple pose for a portrait during the 2013 Sundance Film Festival at the Getty Images Portrait Studio at Village at the Lift on January 20, 2013 in Park City, Utah. Kopple's documentary, "Running From Crazy," debuted at the festival.

Credit: Larry Busacca/Getty Images

Mariel Hemingway introduces Mo Rocca to her trampoline.

In recent years, Hemingway says she has evolved her ability to grasp the joy of life. "It was such an extraordinary discovery for me," she said, that "you could be in your 40s, 50s, and be completely like a child. I didn't know any of that. It's like I got to re-do my childhood. There's that quote that it's never too late to have a happy childhood. It's really true. If you want to, you can recreate a life that is right for you. And that's what I've done."